The present invention relates to an electronic contract system and more particularly to an electronic contract system used to make a contract regarding predetermined contractual terms between a first transacting party and a second transacting party through a network.
With the spread of the Internet, the frequency of electronic commerce between business firms has steadily increased while raising its relative importance in business. Likewise, various types of electronic commerce, such as the purchase of commodities, reservations for tickets, subscriptions to electronic magazines, and participation in auctions, have begun to permeate personal daily lives. In not a few cases, these types of electronic commerce are carried out without being directly conscious of each other's existence, because they use the Internet. However, so long as the electronic commerce is one form of legal transaction, the electronic commerce must be based on making a trading contract between a first transacting party and a second transacting party. A declaration of mutual intentions to the effect that an agreement shall be approved with given contractual terms is required to make such a trading contract. Ordinarily, a procedure is adopted in which one of the transacting parties presents contractual terms, whereas the other transacting party consents to the contractual terms. For example, in purchasing a commodity or participating in an auction by use of a general electronic shopping mall established on the Internet, a part (commodity name, price, delivery method, settlement procedure, etc.) of the contractual terms is presented on Web pages of the electronic shopping mall. When a general consumer makes a declaration of intention to the effect that he/she orders specific commodities listed on Web pages for a specific number of goods, the contractual terms are fixed, and, when the electronic-mall party accepts this order, handling for the conclusion of the contract is performed on the assumption that both parties have agreed to the contractual terms. Normally, a confirmation E-mail stating that the order has been accepted is sent as a reply from the electronic-mall party.
An array of security problems are pointed out with respect to the electronic commerce, and a technical means to solve these problems is becoming commercially viable. For example, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology or the like is generally used as a means for enhancing the security of information transmission through the Internet, and a digital signature technology is generally used as a means for certifying the contents of the transmission information and its sender.
As mentioned above, transactions using the Internet have already been performed in various forms, and each of the transactions is legally based on an online contract concluded by both transacting parties. However, the online contract concluded on the Internet is insufficient as admissable evidence and has more legal problems than a general contract concluded by allowing both parties to sign a document. Actually, in making an online contract to purchase commodities at an electronic shopping mall, most malls make practice of replying by an E-mail for order confirmation. The contents of the E-mail are expressed in various forms ranging from a form in which ordered items are repeated in detail to a form in which only the message of order confirmation is recorded. Some E-mails have a form in which the conclusion of a contact is never legally formalized. Additionally, there are cases in which differences concerning contractual terms arise between both parties, and there are not a few cases in which discrepancies arise as to commodity details, selling prices, order quantity, etc., ex post facto. Thus, if the legal evidential value of contractual terms is insufficient, sufficient countermeasures cannot be taken when a troublesome case arises in which commodities are not sent even after the settlement of payment or in which commodities different from ordered items have been sent.